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Battery materials for ultrafast charging and discharging

Nature volume 458, pages 190–193 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The storage of electrical energy at high charge and discharge rate is an important technology in today’s society, and can enable hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and provide back-up for wind and solar energy. It is typically believed that in electrochemical systems very high power rates can only be achieved with supercapacitors, which trade high power for low energy density as they only store energy by surface adsorption reactions of charged species on an electrode material1,2,3. Here we show that batteries4,5 which obtain high energy density by storing charge in the bulk of a material can also achieve ultrahigh discharge rates, comparable to those of supercapacitors. We realize this in LiFePO4 (ref. 6), a material with high lithium bulk mobility7,8, by creating a fast ion-conducting surface phase through controlled off-stoichiometry. A rate capability equivalent to full battery discharge in 10–20 s can be achieved.

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Figure 1: Characterization of LiFeP 0.9 P 0.95 O 4- δ synthesized under argon.
Figure 2: Phosphorus 2 p X-ray photoelectron spectra from three different compounds.
Figure 3: Discharge rate capability and capacity retention for LiFe 0.9 P 0.95 O 4- δ synthesized at 600 °C.
Figure 4: Discharge capability at very high rate for LiFe 0.9 P 0.95 O 4- δ synthesized at 600 °C.

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Acknowledgements

B.K. thanks D. S. Yun and Y. Zhang for the help with transmission electron microscope measurements and K. Kang and Y. S. Meng for experimental help and discussions. Support from the US National Science Foundation through the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers programme and the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Program of the US Department of Energy is gratefully acknowledged.

Author Contributions B.K. performed the experiments and G.C. supervised and analysed the work.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA,

    Byoungwoo Kang & Gerbrand Ceder

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  1. Byoungwoo Kang
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  2. Gerbrand Ceder
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Correspondence to Gerbrand Ceder.

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Kang, B., Ceder, G. Battery materials for ultrafast charging and discharging. Nature 458, 190–193 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07853

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